~RGVRC Affiliate Scholar~

Catherine L. Dempsey, PhD, MPH, is a research associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University (USU), and a principal investigator/research psychologist at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS), Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine. Her research training is multidisciplinary in public health, epidemiology, and clinical psychology. Dr. Dempsey’s program of research has focused on risk and protective factors for adverse psychological and behavioral outcomes related to trauma exposure, including suicidal behaviors and firearm injury in service members. She is trained in mixed methods and uses a range of quantitative and qualitative methods to answer critical health questions, and is a content expert in treatment for trauma and diagnostic assessment in military populations. Dr. Dempsey has published articles in high-impact journals related to risk and protective factors of suicide, in particular firearm suicide risk and prevention in service members.